General Conference Portland 2016

The General Conference this year in Portland, Oregon was an exciting one. For an overall wrap-up please see the article from the United Methodist News Service. A good summary can also be found on the Florida Conference website. From a conservative point of view, it was a very good General Conference, in that we withdrew from the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (an organization advocating abortion rights under any circumstances), removal of a long-standing resolution to honor the Roe v. Wade decision, defeat of motions to divest from organizations that do business with Israel, as well as an organization that advocates for the BDS movement (Ban-Divest-Sanction Israel). The Plan UMC Revised scheme to reorganize our structure was gutted by a Judicial Council decision just before the beginning of the Conference. The controversial Rule 44 process to discuss human sexuality was defeated. And all petitions addressing human sexuality were put on hold, pending a study by a special commission to study all references in the Book of Discipline. A special General Conference to discuss only these issues could be called as early as 2018.